Soldiers to walk 70km of Slieve Blooms to help Portlaoise charity that helps the homeless

Big fundraiser for Portlaoise Action to the Homeless

Reporter:

Lynda Kiernan

22 Feb 2017

Email:

news@leinsterexpress.ie

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PATH volunteer Jason O'Neill and two of his army colleagues from the Curragh Camp, are planning to walk the full 70km Slieve Bloom Way within a 24 hour period, to raise money for the charity.

PATH (Portlaoise Action to Homelessness) volunteers feed and clothe over 100 homeless people every Saturday night on the streets of Dublin.

Jason O'Neill, Jason Tynan and David Murray will be sleeping under the stars with no tent, to highlight the exposure that homeless people face every night, when they do their walk.

They will set out from Glenbarrow carpark on Friday March 3 at 11am.

“We will be carrying approx 10kg backpacks for our journey which will have some food, water and sleeping bags. The plan is to walk 40km and then sleep out. the next morning we will set out early and complete the 70km, returning by 11am on Saturday March 4 to the carpark,” he said.

They will be following the signposted 'yellow man' Slieve Bloom Way right around the mountains, but their army training may come in handy to help them navigate in the dark.

“We will head on then to Treacy's of the Heath as they have been a great support to PATH, supplying the soup and sandwiches,” said Jason.

He is volunteering with PATH for over a year.

“We feed 80 to 120 people every Saturday night. The numbers haven't gone down, if anything it's got worse, we always see new faces. All we can do is give them some clothes, a sleeping bag and some hot food, and hope they'll be ok, it's better than nothing,” Jason said

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